PortableApps.com has released a portable version of the DOSBox Emulator at just 1.5 MB!

Here are two places to get some DOS games for your DOSBox Emulator:

DOSGames.com

Abandonia.com

For Commodore 64 fans, there is another emulator to try out called CCS64 – make sure to download the no installer version for your USB flash drive!

Here’s a portable GameBoy emulator called Visual Boy Advance at only 1.72 MB:

Visual Boy Advance

And here’s where you can get some free (yes, they’re legal, too) GBA to play:

http://www.gameboy-advance-roms.com/free_gba_roms.htm

If you’re looking for the best place to download a ton of Commodore 64 games to play on your portable VICE emulator, visit http://c64g.com/.

Here are a few games I’ve downloaded so far:

Max Headroom
I was really happy to have found this game! Now, if only I can figure out how to play it, I’ll be all set!

Mountie Mick’s Death Ride
Ever dream of being a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police? Okay, maybe you haven’t but Mountie-based games are very rare indeed – too bad! This is a fun side scrolling game where you play a train-hopping Mountie chasing and shooting the bad guys. It even lets you play with unlimited lives!

Pole Position
One of the best car games ever! I played most of the Need for Speed games but this one is still my favorite.

Spy Hunter is one of my all-time favorite games. For a long time, I’ve been playing Highway Pursuit, which is a 3D remake of Spy Hunter and one of the best clones I’ve ever played. Unfortunately, it has an installation program and makes entries into the registry, so it’s not portable!

Another Spy Hunter clone is Kamikaze Racer. This game is 2D, about 9MB and truly portable. Although it is not as fun as Highway Pursuit and not as good as the original Spy Hunter, it’s the best PC version I’ve found to date. Hopefully, someone will come out with a better portable remake of the classic Spy Hunter soon! You can download this game here: Kamikaze Racer

Another alternative is to use an emulator to play the game. For example, you can play with the MAME emulator and ROM or the Commodore 64 VICE emulator and get the C64 version of Spy Hunter here.

This isn’t a portable game (but you can bookmark this site in your portable FireFox browser!), but in case there are others out there like me who love the old arcade games the most, I thought I’d pass on this site that has about 300 classic online games from Nintendo:

updated: http://www.virtualnes.com/.

There is nothing to download; both the NES emulator and the ROMS are online. Lots of memories here and lots of games to choose from!

Here is a site hosting a small (313 KB) emulator for ColecoVision ROMS. You can also download a free ROM package full of arcade games like Centipede, Frogger, Fury, Burger Time, Tapper, Football, Jungle Hunt, Baseball, Galaxian, Zaxxon, Star Trek, Super Donkey Kong Jr, Popeye, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, Time Pilot, Cosmo Fighter, Qbert.

WEBSITE:
http://tripletsandus.com/80s/80s_games/coleco.htm.

Great games and a great little emulator. I couldn’t get some games to work but I didn’t spend too much time trying to figure it out either – most work just fine. Cosmo Fighter is a lot of fun! I haven’t had a chance to try them all out; there are enough games included to have a blast all weekend!

Pogo Joe was the Commodore 64 clone of Q-bert – I remember playing this game a lot. You can get a copy of Pogo Joe here: http://www.c64g.com/.

Remember, you need an emulator like VICE to play it. Both the game and the emulator are portable and can be uploaded to your flash drive.

Emulators (programs that imitate other computer platforms) open up a whole new world of portable gaming for your flash drive. Games that I once thought I’d never be able to play again (like Aztec Challenge for the Commodore 64 which I tried to find for months on a PC platform) are all available and most are all small single files that are easy to carry around with you wherever your go! The emulators required to run them also usually require no installation.

I’ll be checking out several emulators for different platforms over the next few months with links to games for each of them. This week, we’ll start with my true love: The Commodore 64!!

I’ve tried a few C64 emulators but my favorite to date has to be VICE. One of my favorite features is that it allows you to define your keys for joystick control for both game ports 1 & 2 – very helpful when playing on a laptop in which the numeric keypad is impossible to play a game with! All you need to do is unzip the files and it’s ready to go.

Now for C64 games for your emulator: one of my favorite sites is: http://c64g.com/. This site has tons of games for various platforms as well as several emulators (including VICE). Everything is free!

Here are a few C64 games that I’ve really enjoyed in the past, to get you started (you can find them all and many more at http://c64g.com/.):

• Aztec Challenge
• GhostBusters!
• JumpMan
• Missile Command
• PacMan
• QBert
• 1942
• SpyHunter
• Mario Brothers
• Donkey Kong

Update August 23: Here’s another great source of Commodore 64 games for you: http://www.c64.com.